43-448: The Sonisphere Festival was a touring rock music festival which took place across Europe between the months of June and August. The festival was owned by John Jackson and Kilimanjaro Live . It was jointly promoted by K2 and Kilimanjaro Live. It hosted heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden , Metallica , Mötley Crüe , Slayer , Judas Priest , Megadeth , Avenged Sevenfold and Babymetal (the latter group would make their UK debut at
86-642: A "significant condition" that may have played a role in Sullivan's death. On January 6, 2010, a private funeral was held for Sullivan. Shortly after his death, Avenged Sevenfold dedicated their fifth studio album Nightmare to him, as well as several songs, including " So Far Away ", which had been written by bandmate (and childhood friend) Synyster Gates , and "Fiction", which the Rev had written three days before his death. M. Shadows and Gates stated in an interview to Hard Drive Radio : "The eeriest thing about it
129-425: A better definition": it is a short fill consisting a full bar of sixteenth single notes played unison on double bass drums and two ride cymbals , that can be heard on tracks such as " Almost Easy ", "Critical Acclaim", "Crossroads", and "Dancing Dead". The Rev was the drummer, composer, songwriter, vocalist, and pianist for the band. His vocals are featured in several Avenged Sevenfold songs, including "Strength of
172-438: A campsite and other amenities and forms of entertainment provided at the venue. Some festivals are singular events, while others recur annually in the same location. Occasionally, a festival will focus on a particular genre (e.g., folk , heavy metal , world music ), but many attempt to bring together a diverse lineup to showcase a broad array of popular music trends. Initially, some of the earliest rock festivals were built on
215-402: A few short years, rock festivals played a unique, significant – and underappreciated – role in fueling the countercultural shift that swept not only America but many other countries [during the 1960s]. It seems fitting… that one of the most enduring labels for the entire generation of that era was derived from a rock festival: the ' Woodstock Generation'." Reflecting their musical diversity and
258-621: A keyboard player. On December 28, 2009, Sullivan was found unresponsive in his Huntington Beach home, and was pronounced dead upon arrival to the hospital. Police ruled out foul play and noted that his death appeared to be from natural causes. An autopsy performed on December 30, 2009 was inconclusive, but toxicology results revealed in June that he died from an overdose of oxycodone ( Percocet ), oxymorphone (a metabolite of oxycodone), diazepam (Valium), nordiazepam (a metabolite of diazepam), and alcohol. The coroner noted an enlarged heart as
301-479: A specific genre and may in turn become known and large enough to be seen as festivals themselves, such as was The Glade at the famous Glastonbury Festival in England. Advances in sound reinforcement systems beginning in the 1960s enabled larger and larger rock festival audiences to hear the performers' music with much better clarity and volume. The best example was the pioneering work of Bill Hanley , known as
344-524: Is there is a song on the album called 'Fiction' [a nickname the Rev gave himself] which started out with the title 'Death.' And it was the last song The Rev wrote for the album, and when he handed it in, he said, 'That's it, that's the last song for this record.' And then, three days later, he died." The Rev's triple bass drum kit from the 2008 Taste of Chaos tour was donated for display at a Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas. It has since been taken down after
387-518: The Hells Angels and Grim Reapers Motorcycle Club . Gravy in particular called his security group the "Please Force," a reference to their non-intrusive tactics at keeping order, e.g., "Please don't do that, please do this instead". When asked by the press — who were the first to inform him that he and the rest of his commune were handling security — what kind of tools he intended to use to maintain order at Woodstock in 1969, his response
430-519: The "father of festival sound", who provided the sound systems for numerous rock festivals including Woodstock. Other examples included the Wall of Sound invented in the 1970s to allow the Grateful Dead to play to larger audiences. Camping and crowd control Many festivals offer camping, either because lodging in the area is insufficient to support the crowd, or to allow easy multi-day access to
473-641: The 2009 festivals include Goffert Park, Nijmegen , Netherlands ; Hockenheimring , Germany; The Forum , Barcelona , Spain; Folkets Park , Hultsfred , Sweden; Kirjurinluoto , Pori , Finland; and Knebworth House , Knebworth , England. Metallica were the main headliners for each of the 2009 Sonisphere Festivals. The Dutch edition of the Sonisphere Festival took place on Saturday 20 June 2009 at Goffertpark in Nijmegen . Mastodon could not make it to Sonisphere due to scheduling issues. This
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#1732783955028516-569: The 2014 event). The festival has not taken place in the UK since 2014. Stuart Galbraith, chief executive officer of Kilimanjaro Live, revealed in 2018 that Sonisphere will not return to the UK, due to financial issues. The idea for Sonisphere was first conceived by John Jackson in the late 90s. Jackson chose the name Sonisphere, from a combination of Sonic and Sphere. In 2008 Stuart Galbraith had formed business partnership with AEG Live called Kilimanjaro Live . John Jackson approached Stuart Galbraith with
559-494: The Family", "Save Me", among others. Avenged Sevenfold released a demo version of "Nightmare" featuring the Rev on an electronic drumset and providing some vocals. At the second annual Revolver Golden God Awards, the Rev won the award for "Best Drummer". His family members, and Avenged Sevenfold, received the posthumous honor on his behalf. In an Ultimate Guitar online readers' poll of the "Top Ten Greatest Drummers of All Time",
602-473: The Night Tripper, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Steppenwolf A recent innovation is the traveling rock festival where many musical acts perform at multiple locations during a tour. Successful festivals are often held in subsequent years. The following is an incomplete list. The following is a list of festivals that predominantly feature rock genres that take place on a regular basis. Most are held at
645-619: The Rev appeared at No. 8, placing higher than Bill Ward of Black Sabbath and lower than Keith Moon of the Who . In 2017, he once again appeared in Ultimate Guitar's list of Top 25 Greatest Singing Drummers, at No. 5. Pinkly Smooth was an American heavy metal / avant-garde metal band. The band was formed in the summer of 2001 in Huntington Beach, California , as a side project of the Rev, and originally featured Rev (under
688-407: The Sonisphere Festival took place on Saturday 18 July 2009 at Folkets Park, Hultsfred with Metallica as headliners. The Finnish edition of the Sonisphere Festival took place on Saturday 25 July 2009 at Kirjurinluoto Arena , Pori with Metallica as headliners. Machine Head were forced to cut their set short, due to lead guitarist Phil Demmel collapsing on stage. The British edition of
731-522: The Sonisphere Festival took place over two days, on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 August 2009, at Knebworth House , Knebworth with headliners Linkin Park ( Saturday ) and Metallica ( Sunday ). The festival featured four stages of music over the weekend, with the main two being staggered staging, the others being within the Bohemia village. The Bohemia stage (the third of four stages) was an undercover stage and
774-666: The Sonisphere festival from 25 to 27 June 2010 in Bucharest at Romexpo . Day 1 – Friday 25 June Day 2 – Saturday 26 June Day 3 – Sunday 27 June Turkey held the Sonisphere festival at the same time as Romania : 25 to 27 June 2010. This part of Sonisphere was at the BJK İnönü Stadium in Istanbul . Akbank sponsored the event. Day 1 – Friday 25 June Day 2 – Saturday 26 June Day 3 – Sunday 27 June The Big Four were on
817-428: The UK event into a 3-day festival, and increasing the UK capacity from 40,000 to 60,000 attendees. The 2009 Sonisphere festival tour was made up of six one-day festivals across Europe and plenty of slurry whilst in an NVZ with a seventh festival in England spanning two days. The festival had a core group of bands that played each of the six dates with numerous extra bands added to each date individually. The locations for
860-568: The World", " Afterlife ", " A Little Piece of Heaven ", "Almost Easy", " Scream ", "Critical Acclaim", "Lost", "Brompton Cocktail", "Crossroads", "Flash of the Blade" ( Iron Maiden cover), "Art of Subconscious Illusion", "Save Me", and "Fiction". He also wrote and composed several songs for Avenged Sevenfold including "A Little Piece of Heaven", "Afterlife", "Almost Easy", "Unbound (The Wild Ride)", "Buried Alive", "Fiction", "Brompton Cocktail", "Welcome to
903-465: The band's founding members, Sullivan was the drummer for the third wave ska band Suburban Legends . At the age of 19, he recorded his first album with Avenged Sevenfold titled Sounding the Seventh Trumpet . His early influences included Frank Zappa and King Crimson . The Rev stated in an interview with Modern Drummer that he "was raised on that stuff as much as rock and metal." He
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#1732783955028946-407: The festival's features. Festival planning and logistics are frequently a focus of the media, some festivals such as the heavily commercialized Woodstock 1999 were crowd control disasters, with insufficient water and other resources provided to audiences. Many early rock festivals successfully relied on volunteers for crowd control , for example individuals like Wavy Gravy and biker groups such as
989-573: The first time. Switzerland was the second nation to host the Sonisphere festival in 2010 with the event taking place at Degenaupark in Jonschwil on 18 June 2010. Czech Republic hosted the festival in Milovice on 19 June 2010; this was also a one-day festival. Metallica headlined this event. Bulgaria held its first Sonisphere over two days in Sofia on 22 and 23 June 2010. The venue
1032-566: The foundation of pre-existing jazz and blues festivals, but quickly evolved to reflect the rapidly changing musical tastes of the time. For example, the United Kingdom's National Jazz Festival was launched in Richmond from 26 to 27 August 1961. The first three of these annual outdoor festivals featured only jazz music, but by the fourth "Jazz & Blues Festival" in 1964, a shift had begun that incorporated some blues and pop artists into
1075-555: The idea of a pan-world touring festival that aligned with Kilimanjaro Live's plan for a UK festival. John Jackson is the Creator and Director of Sonisphere and Galbraith the Producer. The first run of festivals ran throughout the summer of 2009 at six venues, returning in 2010 and 2011 with 11 venues. Plans for future festivals consist of increasing the number of festivals, making the event global rather than local to Europe, expanding
1118-488: The lineup. In 1965, for the first time the event included more blues, pop and rock acts than jazz, and by 1966, when the event moved to the town of Windsor, the rock and pop acts clearly dominated the jazz artists. A similar, though more rapid, evolution occurred with Jazz Bilzen , a solely jazz festival that was inaugurated in 1965 in the Belgian city of Bilzen. The 1966 festival still featured mostly jazz acts. However, by
1161-404: The money often gathered through fundraising and angel investors . Stages and sound systems While rock concerts typically feature a small lineup of rock bands playing a single stage, rock festivals often grow large enough to require several stages or venues with live bands playing concurrently. As rock music has increasingly been fused with other genres, sometimes stages will be devoted to
1204-512: The name "Rathead") on vocals, along with fellow Avenged Sevenfold member Synyster Gates on guitar and former Ballistico band members Buck Silverspur (under the name "El Diablo") on bass, as well as Derek Eglit (under the name "Super Loop") on drums. They released only one album, Unfortunate Snort , which featured former Avenged Sevenfold bassist Justin Meacham (under his stage name "Justin Sane") as
1247-542: The same location on an annual basis. Some, like Farm Aid are held at different venues with each incarnation. The Rev James Owen Sullivan (February 9, 1981 – December 28, 2009), also known by his stage name The Rev (shortened version of the Reverend Tholomew Plague ), was an American musician, best known as a founding member of the heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold , where he played drums, piano and provided backing and co-lead vocals. He
1290-737: The same organization. Production and financing Several of the early rock festival organizers of the 1960s such as Chet Helms , Tom Rounds , Alex Cooley and Michael Lang helped create the blueprint for large-scale rock festivals in the United States, as well promoters such as Wally Hope in the United Kingdom. In various countries, the organizers of rock festivals have faced legal action from authorities, in part because such festivals have attracted large counterculture elements. In 1972, Mar Y Sol Pop Festival in Manatí, Puerto Rico attracted an estimated 30–35,000 people, and an arrest warrant
1333-594: The stage one after another, but did not play altogether. This was the first time Rammstein and Anthrax came to Turkey. The bass player of Manowar , Joey DeMaio , made a speech to the audience in Turkish. Spain hosted Sonisphere on 9 and 10 July 2010, at Getafe Open Air in Madrid . Day 1 – Friday 9 July Rock music festival A rock festival is an open-air rock concert featuring many different performers, typically spread over two or three days and having
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1376-751: The summer of 1967: the KFRC Fantasy Fair & Magic Mountain Music Festival on Mount Tamalpais (10–11 June) and the Monterey International Pop Festival (16–17 June). The concept caught fire and spread quickly as rock festivals took on a unique identity and attracted significant media attention around the world. By 1969, promoters were staging dozens of them. According to Bill Mankin, in their dawning age rock festivals were important socio-cultural milestones: "… it would not be an exaggeration to say that, over
1419-533: The then-common term ' pop music ', for the first few years, particularly in the US, many rock festivals were called 'pop festivals'. This also served to distinguish them among the ticket-buying public from other, pre-existing types of music festivals such as jazz and folk festivals. By the end of 1972, the term 'pop festival' had virtually disappeared as festival promoters adopted more creative, unique and location-specific names to identify and advertise their events. While it
1462-475: The time of the third festival from 25 to 27 August 1967, rock and pop acts had edged out most of the jazz bands and become the main attraction. In the United States, rock festivals seemed to spring up with a more self-defined musical identity. Preceded by several precursor events in the San Francisco area, the first two rock festivals in the US were staged in northern California on consecutive weekends in
1505-465: Was "Cream pies and seltzer bottles ." Other rock festivals hire private security or local police departments for crowd control, with varying degrees of success. Saturday, 21 June - Eric Anderson, Al Kooper, The Band, Bonzo Dog Band, Johnny Winter, Velvet Underground and Sly & the Family Stone. Sunday, 22 June - Ronnie Hawkins, Chuck Berry, Kensington Market, Tiny Tim, Nucleus, Dr. John &
1548-675: Was able to continue past the sound curfews placed upon the main stages. This was The Rev 's final live performance as Avenged Sevenfold 's drummer before his death in December 2009. It was also the last European appearance of Ronnie James Dio before he died of stomach cancer in May 2010. The Sonisphere 2010 tour visited eleven locations around Europe between 16 June and 8 August 2010. The locations for Sonisphere 2010 were Poland, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, Spain, United Kingdom, Sweden and Finland. Unlike in 2009, there
1591-523: Was also the lead vocalist/pianist in the avant-garde metal band Pinkly Smooth and drummer for the ska punk band Suburban Legends from 1998 to 1999. Sullivan was born on February 9, 1981, of Irish descent and raised Roman Catholic . He received his first pair of drumsticks at the age of five and his own drum set at the age of twelve. While in high school, he started playing in bands. Before leaving to join Avenged Sevenfold as one of
1634-459: Was announced at Sonisphere itself, although some heard the news whilst traveling. The Sword cancelled their show a few days before Sonisphere began. The German edition of the Sonisphere Festival took place on Saturday 4 July 2009 at Hockenheimring with Metallica as headliners. The Spanish edition of the Sonisphere Festival took place on Saturday 11 July 2009 at The Forum , Barcelona with headliners Metallica . The Swedish edition of
1677-488: Was influenced by drummers Vinnie Paul , Mike Portnoy (who would later be his fill-in with Avenged Sevenfold), Dave Lombardo , Lars Ulrich , and Terry Bozzio , stating "It's funny [...], of all my influences, Tommy Lee is a visual influence. I never thought I'd have one of those." Sullivan had a signature drum fill called "the double-ride thing" or "the Double Octopus", as the Rev called it, "just for lack of
1720-469: Was issued for promoter Alex Cooley, who avoided arrest by leaving the island before the festival was over. British Free Festival organizers Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle were imprisoned for attempting to promote a 1975 Windsor Festival. The British police would later outright attack free festival attendees at the 1985 Battle of the Beanfield . Festivals may require millions of USD to be organized, with
1763-474: Was not a core group of headliners performing all dates. The headliners for 2010 were Iron Maiden , Metallica and Rammstein . Warsaw , Poland was the host city for the first of the 2010 festivals; that was first announced on 9 December 2009. The 2010 Sonisphere in Poland took place on 16 June 2010. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax, bands which make up the big four of thrash metal , played together for
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1806-416: Was still in vogue, however, over-zealous promoters eager to capitalize on the festival concept made the most of it, with some using the term "Pop Festival" or "Rock Festival" to advertise events held on a single day or evening, often indoors, and featuring only a handful of acts. Today, rock festivals are usually open-air concerts spread out over two or more days and many of the annual events are sponsored by
1849-794: Was the Vasil Levski National Stadium . Day 1 – Tuesday 22 June Day 2 – Wednesday 23 June This concert was also broadcast live around the world in movie theaters as part of the Big Four Tour . This was the first time in their history that all four bands played together on one stage, performing the Diamond Head song "Am I Evil?". The Sonisphere festival in Greece was held on 24 June 2010 at Terra Vibe Park in Athens in front of 30,000 people. Romania held
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